"The commitment by the Justice Department to target individuals defrauding the Medicare Program at the expense of legitimate beneficiaries enables the FBI to conduct swift and meaningful investigations leading to arrests," said Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. "We will continue to work with the Strike Force in Los Angeles to combat the considerable crime problem involving health care fraud."

"Working closely with important federal, state and local law enforcement partners in Los Angeles, we have now successfully replicated the Medicare Strike Force initiative that was first used last year in Florida," said Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services. "This collaborative enforcement model is an effective way to direct investigative resources toward illegal activities and preserve the integrity of the Medicare program."


On May 9, 2007, the Miami Strike Force was publicly announced, following the arrest of 28 defendants by FBI and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) agents the previous day. Phase one of strike force operations in Miami-Dade County which ran from March 1 to Sept. 30, 2007, led to the indictment of 130 individual defendants in 76 cases, resulting in 101 convictions to date. Eleven convictions resulted from jury verdicts, 90 convictions came as the result of pleas, 13 individuals remain fugitives and the remainder of the 130 defendants are awaiting trial.

In Miami, fraudulent billings to Medicare in strike force-related cases have exceeded $420 million, including $195 million billed in fraudulent infusion therapy claims, $209 million billed in fraudulent DME claims and $16 million billed in fraudulent pharmaceutical claims. To date, convicted defendants have been sentenced to more than $51 million in court-ordered restitutions, fines and/or forfeitures related to Medicare losses.

Both phases of the strike force have seen high levels of DME fraud, however the Miami Strike Force, operating in an area with approximately 800,000 Medicare beneficiaries, has also identified numerous cases of fraudulent activity related to infusion therapy. The Los Angeles Strike Force, with approximately 4 million beneficiaries in its scope, has identified through analysis and investigation high levels of fraud in connection with health care testing facilities as well as DME fraud.

The Los Angeles strike force teams are led by a federal prosecutor supervised by both the Criminal Division's Fraud Section in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Each team has six agents from the FBI and HHS-OIG as well as representatives from local law enforcement. The teams operate out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

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